For the first time, a Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) activist was on Tuesday deported from Israel, Channel 2 News reported.

Soon after she landed at the Ben Gurion International Airport, the BDS activist from Switzerland, was taken in for questioning and then deported, after Israeli Interior Minister Aryeh Deri (Shas) issued a deportation order against her.

According to Channel 2 News, the activist, identified as Rita Faye, popped in Israel several times in the past and is known for recording soldiers’ violations.

This marks the first time that a deportation order has been issued against BDS activists who hail from Europe.

Officials in the Interior Ministry said there is a possibility that more deportation orders against BDS activists will be adopted as a method to fight the movement's calls for a boycott of Israel.

Israeli Maariv newspaper reported that the BDS movement against Israel is achieving the opposite of what was marketed by Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu who claimed hitting the BDS allover the world.

The newspaper said that Israeli experts opined that Netanyahu’s statements reflected exaggeration since the BDS has been garnering growing support in many countries.

The Hebrew newspaper pointed out that BDS had received signatures of 400 international artists who signed on a petition in support of boycotting Israel.

Israeli Maariv newspaper reported that the BDS, The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement, against Israel is achieving the opposite of what was marketed by Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu who claimed hitting the BDS allover the world.

The newspaper said that Israeli experts opined that Netanyahu’s statements reflected exaggeration since the BDS has been garnering growing support in many countries.

The Hebrew newspaper pointed out that BDS had received signatures of 400 international artists who signed on a petition in support of boycotting Israel.

The artists included the Jewish female writer Naomi Klein who called seven years ago for imposing economic boycott against Israel in the wake of its aggression on Gaza in 2008-2009.

The effective travel ban imposed by the Israeli government on the BDS Movement’s co-founder Omar Barghouti was temporarily suspended for two months, during a court hearing at Haifa District Court, on 19 July 2016.

Barghouti has been under an effective travel ban since April of 2016, ostensibly based on the claim, by the state, that the “center of his life is not in Israel.”

Israeli ministers and official spokespeople, however, have explicitly mentioned Barghouti’s human rights activities in the BDS movement as the real motive behind the anti-democratic travel ban.

Given the failure of Israel’s Ministry of Interior to take the necessary legal steps that are required priorto deciding not to renew Barghouti’s travel document, Barghouti’s lawyer, Gila Barzili proposed in court that the Ministry should grant Barghouti at least a temporary renewal of his travel document until it has fulfilled these requirements. The state’s attorney accepted the proposal.

Examining all the evidence that was presented on Barghouti’s behalf — that proves that his “center of life” is in present-day Israel — and granting him a hearing are considered fundamental rights that he is entitled to before the state decides on any measure that violates his human rights.

The Haifa District Court determined, according to the PNN, that a re-examination of Barghouti’s application for the renewal of his travel document is to be conducted by the Ministry of Interior, and until then he is entitled to have his travel document renewed.

Around the same time, Omar Barghouti was announced as a winner — along with Ralph Nader — of the Gandhi Peace Award for the year 2016, presented by the US-based organization Promoting Enduring Peace. The Gandhi Peace Award has been presented since 1960 to people who have made “outstanding contributions to world peace, creating a sustainable ecology and social justice.”

Speaking on behalf of the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC), the largest coalition in Palestinian society that is leading the global BDS movement, Mahmoud Nawajaa reacted to the Haifa court results saying:

“This temporary lifting of Israel’s travel ban on Omar Barghouti clearly reflects the impact of the worldwide condemnation of the ban and of Israel’s all-out legal, intelligence and propaganda war on the BDS movement.”

“By evoking the worst days of McCarthyism, Israel, just like the apartheid regime in South Africa had done, is alienating the liberal mainstream and inadvertently expanding the appeal of the BDS movement in it at unprecedented rates.”

“Israel’s war on BDS seems to be backfiring. It has triggered the long-sought recognition by European governments and leading international human rights organizations for the right to advocate and campaign for Palestinian rights through the boycott of Israel.”

Nawajaa concluded:

“But we should not relax. This is only a procedural delay in Israel’s still-ongoing process of punishing Omar for his defense of Palestinian human rights. We urge people of conscience around the world to intensify their efforts to counter Israel’s repressive war on the BDS movement, as only effective and sustained pressure can have a significant impact. We call on fellow BDS activists to continue their inspiring work of growing the movement in pursuit of Palestinian freedom, justice and equality.”

In an open letter published recently in the Irish Times and Irish Independent, thirteen of Ireland’s best-known musicians, writers, artists and sports stars have called on the Irish government to join them in supporting the growing worldwide boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel.

The letter welcomes Minister for Foreign Affairs Charlie Flanagan’s support for BDS as a legitimate political standpoint, but also outlines their disappointment that the Irish government does not go further and support the BDS movement, unfavourably contrasting this current stance to that taken in 1987 when the government of the day banned produce from apartheid South Africa.

The statement points out that BDS is a Palestinian civil society-led global movement of citizens that carries out and advocates for nonviolent campaigns of boycotts, divestment and sanctions as a means to apply pressure on Israel’s regime of occupation, settler-colonialism and apartheid, and to help achieve freedom, justice and equality for the Palestinian people.

It further outlines that many reasons to support BDS are highlighted by human rights organisations such as Amnesty International and Defense for Children International, who frequently document Israel’s extrajudicial killings, imprisonment of children, destruction of people’s homes and livelihoods, theft of Palestinian lands and routine intimidation with tear gas and bullets. The Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC) welcomed the statement, while noting that the freedom to engage in BDS is currently under threat in a number of countries.

For example, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed an executive order last week which requires the New York State Office of General Services to create a blacklist of institutions and companies involved in the BDS movement, and to make that list available to everyone online. He went further and ordered that all state agencies would be required to divest from such companies which would have to submit written evidence to appeal to be removed from the list.

In October 2015, a French court upheld the conviction of Palestine solidarity activists for publicly calling for the boycott of Israeli goods, in what campaigners say is an abuse of France’s anti-discrimination laws for political reasons. Hailing the letter, IPSC Chairperson Fatin Al Tamimi said, “As Israeli human rights violations continue and even increase in Palestine, the threat to non-violent BDS movement from Israel and its allies has never been greater.

We welcome this statement from some of Ireland’s highest-profile artists, musicians and sports people. It is important that Irish people stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people as they face daily repression by their occupiers. As a Palestinian I thank the signatories for their support for my people’s struggle for freedom and justice.”

FULL TEXT OF LETTER:

We, the undersigned, welcome the recent statement in the Dáil by Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Charles Flanagan TD that the strategy of boycott, divestment and sanction (BDS) to pressure Israel into ending the occupation is a legitimate political viewpoint.

It is also heartening that Minister Flanagan outlines the Government’s support for Israeli and Palestinian NGOs active on justice and human rights issues. However given this expression of support, it is both disappointing and confusing that when those same civil society organisations call on the international community to campaign for BDS as a means of showing solidarity with Palestinians living under occupation – the Irish Government refuses to support them or the campaign.

The BDS movement is a Palestinian civil society-led global movement of citizens that carries out and advocates for nonviolent campaigns of BDS as a means to overcome the Israeli regime of occupation, settler-colonialism and apartheid and achieve freedom, justice and equality for the Palestinian people. It is a movement that has the same legitimacy as the anti-apartheid movement which the Irish Government supported in the 1980s, imposing sanctions on South Africa in 1987 in similar circumstances.

In 1997, Nelson Mandela said: “The UN took a strong stand against apartheid; and over the years, an international consensus was built, which helped to bring an end to this iniquitous system. But we know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.” The reasons to support BDS are systematically documented by organisations like Amnesty International, Defense for Children International, the United Nations and others which describe extrajudicial killings, imprisonment of children, destruction of people’s homes and livelihoods, theft of Palestinian lands and daily intimidation with tear gas and bullets.

It is for these and many other reasons that we call for: a boycott of Israeli products and services, business divestments from the occupation economy, and governmental sanctions on the Israeli state.

On June 28 Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) members, including Palestinian families with children, attempted to deliver a petition signed by 25,000 people urging musician Carlos Santana to respect the call for a cultural boycott of Israel in support of Palestinian human rights, and cancel his upcoming concert in Tel Aviv.

More than 30 members of the European parliament have called on EU High Representative Federica Mogherini to take measures assuring freedom of expression regarding the Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement for justice and equality and recognizing Omar Barghouti, a co-founder of the BDS movement, as a human rights defender.

Irish MEPs Martin Anderson and Nessa Childers are among the signatories.

While the signatories views on the BDS movement differ, they expressed concern regarding “growing attempts to silence and repress advocates of BDS” and called on the EU to “guarantee that it will not introduce measures aimed at limiting freedom of expression regarding the Middle East and BDS.”

Having failed to hinder the growing support and impact of the BDS movement in mainstream civil society, Israel has launched an unprecedented anti-democratic campaign to silence Palestinian narratives and outlaw BDS advocacy.

The Israeli-induced attacks on the BDS movement are, according to the PNN, advanced through putting pressure on governments, legislators and officials to fight BDS activity through implementing repressive measures that pose a threat to civil and political liberties at large.

The 32 signatory MEPs expressed concerns regarding Israel’s targeted attack on activists advocating for Palestinian rights through BDS and called on the EU to “recognise Omar Barghouti as a human rights defender and afford him and other Palestinian, Israeli and international human rights defenders appropriate protection and assistance.”

Aneta Jerska, coordinator of the European Coordination of Committees and Associations for Palestine (ECCP), said: “It is really empowering to see that a growing number of MEPs are taking a clear stance in defence of civil society actor’s right to advocate for BDS, as a matter of conscience, free speech and as a nonviolent means of political expression.”

Riya Hassan, Europe Campaigns Officer for the Palestinian BDS National Committee, the broadest coalition of Palestinian organisations that leads and supports the BDS movement, said:“This letter shows that support for the right of citizens and organisations to take part in the BDS movement continues to grow in Europe, just as it is growing across the world. There is mounting concern about the attacks on democracy that are taking place in order to help shield Israel from accountability and criticism.

“It is high time for the EU to listen to Palestinian and European civil society calls and bring an end to its complicity with Israel’s violations of international law and human rights. The EU must adhere to its own obligations and protect citizens freedom of expression, and political assembly, and assure the protection of Palestinian human right defenders.”

This letter echoes growing European political and civil society calls for protecting the freedom of expression of activists and organisations involved in BDS activity for Palestinian rights.

More than 350 European human rights organizations, trade unions, church groups and political parties, have called on the European Union to defend citizens and organisations right to boycott Israel in response to its occupation and violations of Palestinian rights.

Representatives of the Swedish, Irish and Dutch governments have publicly defended the right to advocate and campaign for Palestinian rights under international law through BDS.